Plasticard Pipe ELBOWS 9mm

Plasticard Pipe ELBOWS 9 mm from Green Stuff World

Plastic pipe elbows for building technical details yourself. The figure 9 mm in the name is the diameter, not a scale, so the product belongs to no scale and you go by how thick you want the piping on the scene to be. The line is released in several diameters, so you can put together a run where the main branch is thicker and the offshoots narrower.

A mid diameter as the backbone of a run

A nine-millimeter elbow is a good compromise. It is large enough to read on a diorama as serious process piping, and at the same time small enough to be run between buildings and machines without dominating the scene. In practice it is used to build the main lines along walls and gantries, bypasses around tanks and risers at process towers. If you use one size as the backbone and a smaller diameter for the offshoots, a hierarchy comes about that is always apparent in real installations and that gives a finished diorama more credibility than any single detail.

Work tips

• Mark the run out first with wire or a pencil on the base, and only then cut the material.
• Make the cut with a sharp knife or a fine saw and level the surface with a file.
• Keep the spacing of the supports uniform; it is regularity that gives piping away as industrial.
• Once a base coat is on, add rust, running oil and warning stripes.

Who it is for

• Builders of industrial dioramas, refineries and machine rooms.
• Modelers who fill in a scene with details made by hand.
• Builders of gaming terrain and science fiction sets.
• Railroad modelers building technical facilities and transshipment points.